No one said a word.
“Inside the house we’d have the finest materials... nothing shiny or spindly—I’m not petite, and the children—we’d want them to feel free to run around. Solid, elegant, comfortable, and lush. The rooms are filled with light and we’ve more wood than marble because good wood will give back light like gold does. It would be made to last forever. But mainly for us, and for two boys and two girls and cats and dogs.”
He paused.
Lillias swallowed. Her jaw was set. Oddly, she looked very nearly furious. Or in the throes of some other fierce emotion.
He knew he was tormenting her. But he had an objective.
“Well, the sort of banisters one could slide down, of course. Lillias might want to get from one floor to another quickly.” He smiled at that.
A little hush fell.
Lillias remained absolutely motionless. She didn’t say a word. She was irrationally afraid that if she blinked, or breathed, the image Hugh had just conjured would disappear.
Two boys and two girls. It was what she’d always wanted, too.
She turned toward the group on the picnic blanket. The people she’d known her entire life suddenly seemed slightly unreal. A trifle distorted, as if she were viewing them through a window. She looked back toward Heatherfield; she could have sworn she saw a creamy white house fronted with pillars with a pediment window that caught the light. A terrible longing pierced her dead center. Fleeting, frightening, painfully beautiful.
All the things Hugh loved. All the things he could not have if he stayed here with her.
“It’s so very American to want to build something entirely new,” Giles said politely. “I suppose it’s a country founded by those who’ve run away from tradition.”
Hugh went rigid.
And the way he turned toward Giles slowly made Lillias’s hands go cold with trepidation.
“No American has ever runawayfrom anything. We’ve been fighting for our way of life since the country was born.”
“You didn’t quite win that last war, did you?”Giles furrowed his brow as if his memory indeed required refreshing. When of course knowing about that war was unavoidable for any English person who read.
What the devil waswrongwith him? Hugh could probably break him in half if he wanted to. And yet wasn’t this the sort of thing she’d thought she’d wanted—this outright competition?
“Giles,” she said softly. An admonishment. A gentle plea.
He didn’t seem to hear her.
“Well, the British gave up,” Hugh said easily.
Well. That certainly caused everyone to suck their breath in.
“Hugh,” she said, very quietly.
But she might as well have been a ghost for how heard she was.
“A bit hard to keep two wars going for the British, of course,” Hugh continued reasonably. “And arguably, I would describe the cessation of impressments of American sailors and the signing of a treaty as winning. But I’m certain they would have fared better if you’d had a commission, Giles. The commanders no doubt would have benefited from your military prowess. You could have shown them your Sussex Marksmanship Trophy.”
The silence was more surprised than outraged. In fact, Giles’s parents weren’t even certain they’d heard correctly. Who on earth would have the temerity to say such a thing to a Bankham?
Lillias was suddenly a wishbone, violently pulled from opposite directions. She couldn’t quite get a good breath.
“They probably would have, Giles, dear,” hismother said stoutly. “How lovely it is that you’ll never have to fight a day in your life.”
“Yes, how lovely, Giles, that you won’t have to fight. For anything. Or anyone,” Hugh agreed pleasantly.
There was really no way to charitably interpret this sentence.
Suddenly it was as if Hugh was the wolf set free among them and they’d only just noticed.
